Erik Lyon takes second shot at Chico school board seat for his girls

CHICO — Erik Lyon is clearly a believer that if at first you don't succeed, try again, and has launched his second campaign to win a seat on the Chico Unified School District board of trustees.

In 2010 Lyon entered the race for the board with a "slate" of two other candidates, deeply disturbed about what they felt were errors on the part of the existing board when it came to dealing with a serious budget crisis.

This time he is running on his own and with a dramatically changed opinion of the performance of the board.

In a meeting with the Chico Enterprise-Record editorial board, Lyon said the current board did a "fantastic job" with the budget, but there are other problems he believes need to be addressed.

He alleged there are kids having sex on school campuses, and there are gangs and violence issues parents would find alarming.

Lyon said there needs to be severe consequences for anybody engaging in these kinds of behavior.

While he says he sees the problem, Lyon doesn't claim to have the answers.

"I don't have any really great solutions on the top of my head. I have really tried to avoid coming up with a lot of lofty solutions."

He said he tried to offer solutions the last time he ran and it "kind of came back on me."

Lyon explained his primary motivation for running for the school board are his three daughters, one is already in Chico schools, a toddler and a newborn.

He said people should vote for him because he'll work as hard as he can for his daughters.

He said he is running as an average community member and rejects any hint he has special deep knowledge about the nuts and bolts of what the problems might be or how to repair them.

"This time I admit it. I'm ignorant."

"I can't know what is going on" until he is on the board, he explained.

He described what he will need to know is like an iceberg, with only a small percentage of the information visible on the surface.

Lyon said his daughter provided him one bit of information he will be taking to the board.

He said when his oldest daughter began school she was excited about the prospect of eating hot lunches in the cafeteria. Lyon said that changed when she tasted the food. He said his daughter claims the school food tastes so bad she refuses to eat it.

Lyon, who is a licensed chid and family counselor, claimed that makes him worry about students who depend on school breakfasts and lunches for two-thirds of their daily meals. He said he wonders if those kids go through the day hungry because they won't eat the school meals.

At the same time he said, "I love the Chico school district. We have a really stellar school district here. The community is fabulous and the schools are fabulous."

Staff writer Roger H. Aylworth can be reached at 896-7762, raylworth@chicoer.com, or on Twitter @RogerAylworth.